My Hero Academia’s English voice actor has some serious apologizing to do to Selena Gomez for what his wife Hailey Bieber allegedly did.
Justin Briner, the English dub voice for Izuku Midoriya, posted a screenshot of a message from a passionate Selenator/Belieber, the fandom name for Gomez and Bieber. In the message, the unnamed Twitter user criticized Briner for not defending and apologizing to Gomez, chiding him to “do better Justin.” While the fan acknowledged Briner’s apology might not be something Gomez would want or need, the fan insisted that he should apologize because his fans required it of him. The message ended with a disappointed, “You’re changing and not in a good way. You’re changing just like your wife.” Unfortunately, the enraged fan directed their tirade at the wrong Justin. Justin Briner is many things: he’s Deku in My Hero Academia, Hanako in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun and young Grisha Yeager in Attack on Titan but, despite possessing the same first name and half of the same letters in the last name, making the mistaken identity understandable, Justin Briner is not Justin Bieber.
Briner vs. Bieber
Let’s break it down. First and foremost, Briner is American, and Bieber is Canadian, despite residing in the U.S. While some of the confusion may stem from how Briner has a sister named Hayley and Bieber is married to Hailey Baldwin, note that both women have different spellings to their names. His first single, “One Time,” saw enormous success, peaking at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. He continued seeing success in his music career with the release of “Despacito,” which earned his first Latin Grammy Award. Bieber has yet to dip his toes into the acting waters except for his guest star appearance in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, where he played a teen serial bomber. Media and fans followed Bieber’s turbulent relationship with Gomez with much scrutiny from 2010 to 2018. The singer married Baldwin in November 2018.
On the other hand, Briner has stuck mainly to voice acting. However, a singing career might be within the realm of possibility as the voice actor previously participated in an improvised song with the rest of the My Hero Academia cast in 2022. Briner’s first big role in voice acting was in Seraph of the End, where he voiced deuteragonist Mikaela Hyakuya. He saw mainstream success when he voiced Ichi in Cibele, an indie video game that won a Nuovo Award in 2016. He has voiced Emil Nekola in Yuri!!! on Ice, Ginro in Dr. Stone, Daida in Ranking of Kings, although he is most well-known for his work in My Hero Academia.
My Hero Academia Fans Made Light of the Mistake
Fans had found the interaction amusing, with one commenting, “Justin when did you get a wife and why didn’t you tell us” to which Briner responded, “I’m as surprised as the rest of you.” Fellow voice actor Clifford Chapin who voices Deku’s rival/best friend Katsuki Bakugo, reproached Briner, writing, “If you can’t protect the woman that isn’t your ex from the woman that isn’t your wife, how can you call yourself a hero?!” Kristin McGuire, who voiced Tatami Nakagame from My Hero Academia, added Bieber may be a victim to one of the common complaints anime fans have, saying the singer might be seeing messages yelling “‘SUBS ARE BETTER!!1!'”
The English dub of My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Source: Twitter
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